ring or radial and As the Kitchen/living room extension

[adsmith]

Hi guys

I’m due to carry out a part rewire for now on my parents 1930s home in the living rooms and bedrooms etc and eventually the kitchen and living room will be knocked through into one room in a few months time. I’m going to update a downstairs socket circuit, upstairs socket circuit, kitchen socket circuit, hob/oven circuit, up and down lights and garage circuit. Currently all socket circuits are fed with 4mm off 32amp RCBOs. I really don’t like working with 4mm for sockets as it is quite difficult installing in accessories. Do you think I’m best just dealing with it or installing 2.5mm ring for all socket circuits. All circuit lengths would be less than 50m in distance.

Eventually when the kitchen/living room wall is knocked through will this all have to comply with the regulations regarding socket/switch heights etc as I am led to believe that with it not being a new built socket heights does not matter however I’m unsure if this is the same for a knock through.

Thanks for any help

 

[Madocks]

AFAIK socket height is recomended but customer can insist on whatever they want within reason. Perhaps discuss and show them the pics in OSG and let them decide

As for 4mm / 2.5mm, its a new circuit with new cable.... you decide what you thinks best.

 

[telectrix]

4.0mm is stranded. it'll outlast solid core 2.5mm by years. replace sockets if necessary with ones with decent sized terminals.

 

[davesparks]

4.0mm is stranded. it'll outlast solid core 2.5mm by years. replace sockets if necessary with ones with decent sized terminals.

I’m not quite following the logic here? What is going to happen to the solid core that won’t happen to the stranded?

 

[telectrix]

fatigues easier.

 

[davesparks]

fatigues easier.

What’s going to cause fatigue to the installer cabling?

Personally I’ve never experienced any problem with solid core cable which has become fatigued.
The only vaguely relatable incident was when I over worked a bit of MI and snapped it.

 

[telectrix]

it's rare, i know. just that stranded cable is superior to solid core.just saying..

 

[westward10]

All copper conductors and MI cables go through an annealing process to give them some flexibility, give it a few bends and the copper will harden and MI will often crack the sheath.

 

[Octopus]

If you are terminating 2 x 4 mm cables just don't use shed sourced sockets....

MK and others will accept 3 x 4 mm

 

[telectrix]

orange shed sell MK. , bloody pricey though.

 

[MJPD29]

For the hassle of rewiring if the 4mm tests ok I would leave it as it is

 

[telectrix]

and with a radial, it's easier to add sockets without using pesky FCUs

 

[littlespark]

If the parents are elderly, they might be thankful for the sockets being higher than they were, but it is entirely up to them.

 

[gnuuser]

What’s going to cause fatigue to the installer cabling?

Personally I’ve never experienced any problem with solid core cable which has become fatigued.
The only vaguely relatable incident was when I over worked a bit of MI and snapped it.

for most instances its a matter of vibration and excessive heat
any time you have a current moving through a conductor it is generating a magnetic field,
which in turn will attract to any iron structure,pipe, or fastener in close proximity, and traffic movement, buildings heaving and settling
even a microscopic movement can stress a solid core conductor and over time it can fatigue it enough to fail.
its one of the reasons to thoroughly test existing conductors (IR,Voltage drop,etc.)

 

[Adam W]

IMO it depends on the extent of the rewire - I prefer a 2.5mm ring to a 4mm radial for the same reason, but if I was only going to be changing a couple of sockets around I wouldn't bother ripping the whole lot out and starting again if I didn't have to.
Same with the socket and switch heights - if I was doing the whole lot I'd put them at part M heights, but not if it caused a noticeable contrast with what's staying there, and indeed there is no requirement to.